7 people charged in southern India with defaming the new prime minister in college magazine

NEW DELHI – Seven people, including four students, have been arrested in southern India on charges of defaming the country's new prime minister in a college magazine.

District police chief N. Vijaya Kumar says a former principal of Government Polytechnic College, Thrissur, four students from the Kerala state school and two other people were arrested Wednesday and charged with defamation and criminal conspiracy. They were released on bail on Thursday.

Kumar said Friday that a youth group affiliated with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party had complained about a picture of him that appeared in the magazine under the heading "Negative faces."

Others featured as negative role models in the college's annual magazine included Adolf Hitler, Osama bin Laden and former President George W. Bush.